Shepard's Return
by A.C. Burton
Summary: After flying through space for so long Shepard starts losing hope of ever getting away, but then a certain someone offers him a job... Now Shepard has to take on one of the Combine's strongest military leaders and retake City 23
1. CHAPTER 1: A Chance

Hello people. Anyway, I've been having this idea for Shepard's whole return and such, etc like everyone else lololol. Anyway, this here is the first chapter and I can't really think of anything, but some stuff about Grammar mistakes and etc. would be nice, anyway enjoy the first chapter I guess.

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CHAPTER 1: A Chance

Eternity.

At least that's what it had felt like. My name is Adrian Shepard, and I am a corporal for US Marines… At least I used to be.

It had been a top-priority mission, go to the research facility called Black Mesa and contain and neutralize the alien threat… And any witnesses as well. Soon enough I was involved in something bigger then I would of realized and I was captured by a ghastly-pale man in a blue suit, and he had left me in this V22-Osprey, just floating in space, the words he said to me echoed in my head.

_"While I believe a civil servant like yourself understands the importance of... discretion, my employers are not quite so trusting, and rather than continually subject you to the irresistible human temptation of telling all, we have decided to... convey you somewhere you can do no possible harm, and where no harm can come to you. I'm sure you can imagine there are worse alternatives."_

He had then disappeared forever, through a green orb, as I floated through this dark, endless space, as a prisoner no less. I had thought all hope of ever leaving this place was gone… That's when I heard _his_ voice again, and I remembered it well, as it was the last voice I had heard.

"Corporal Shepard…." The voice said with a dragging tone.

I reacted quickly, turned and faced the pale man and tried to punch him with all the strength I had in me, but to no avail, as it didn't affect him at all. He just stared at me with a devilish grin on his face.

"Maybe, I can just forget about giving you a way out of here,". I froze, he just said he was going to let me go, and the hope suddenly came back to me.

"What do you mean?" I asked, surprised by my voice, it had been a long time since I've heard it.

"I've managed to convince my employers," he smirked. "To give you a job…"

A job? What the hell did he mean by that? Well, I guessed anything was better then here…

"What kind of job?"

"Oh you'll see…" the blue-suited man said, and I swear I could hear him laughing under his breath, and then everything went black.

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Prepare for some epic journey stuff coming next chapter, well maybe not, but expect some badassness if things go as planned. And since your at the bottom of this I'm not going to bother saying the "Read" part.

So start the reviewing!


	2. CHAPTER 2: A Warm Welcome

HELLO THAR. Anyway here's Chapter 2 P and the introduction of the suit I've been imagining for Shepard, like a PCV II

Anyway, enjoy.

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CHAPTER 2: A Warm Welcome

When I came to, I was standing in a train passenger cart, and I saw a few people in denim blue jumpsuits around me who looked so… depressed. I then realized that I didn't have my PCV, or my gasmask, and I was in a denim jumpsuit too. What the hell was going on?

Suddenly, the train came to a stop, and the doors opened. The others on the train stepped out, so I followed them. When I did, a strange, hovering robotic thing was in front of me staring at me with its' one eye, all of a sudden it made a camera-like flash temporally blinding me. It then flew off.

I looked around curious as to what was going on, it looked like Russian architecture, from what I knew anyway. Then I saw those things.

They had human figures, gasmasks on their face with two black-tinted goggles in them. They wore black tops filled with buckles and belts, and green pants, all their clothes covered any skin and probably for good reason, I thought.

I started walking off, and I made a fatal mistake… I bumped right into one of them.

"Stop, citizen!" It yelled with anger, and a strange muffle to the voice, probably caused by the gasmask.

I turned just in time to see it pull out a strange stick, and see it ignite with electricity. I was then hit by this stick, and I felt pain, I had forgotten what it felt like, and it certainly wasn't good as you would know. I forced myself to take the punishment, for I feared if I fought back, then I'd probably be in for a lot worse then a beating…

After it ended I ran off, I had to find out what the hell was going on, and what these new aliens were.

It had been a few hours since I had arrived, but so far I had established some things. I was in Moscow, but it had been renamed to City 23 after the "Combine" had taken over and the Moscow Kremlin was also apparently now one of their main bases. I still had so many unanswered questions in my head, one of the main ones being what I was supposed to do next. That man wouldn't just send me here to just meaninglessly wander around would he?

"Shepard?"

Someone had just said my name.

"Who's there!?" I yelled, maybe a little bit too loudly…

"Damnit!" I saw who it was now, an old black man. "Be quiet, you fool!"

"Who are you?"

"It doesn't matter right now." He said. "Just follow me."

So I did, I had nothing else to do, hopefully this was the right thing to do. Eventually we reached the end of an alleyway and he pulled open a door, and I continued to follow, eventually, we reached a wall.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

He just ignored me and knocked on the wall in a certain pattern, and it suddenly opened revealing a secret room. By then I realized who he was, he was one of the guys who left on the osprey when the damn hangar door was closed on me by the blue-suited man.

Inside I saw various other people, some I could recognize from boot camp, even though they were significantly older. I also saw a balding scientist, with a goatee and glasses working away at a computer.

"Look at who I found guys." The black man said.

Suddenly they turned and looked right at me.

"Shepard?

"Can't be Shepard."

"If it is he hasn't aged a bit."

So many voices, talking about me. How was I so well known? Maybe my struggles in Black Mesa had been more spread then I thought

"I am Adrian Shepard," I said loudly to quiet them all down. "Now if someone could kindly explain to me what the fuck is going on."

After some explaining, I had learned that after the Black Mesa incident, the Combine had emerged. This had begun a war called the 7-hour war, which we had no chance of winning. Eventually, Black Mesa's administrator, Wallace Breen, had surrendered for the Human race. For this the Combine appointed him as leader of Earth to my understanding.

"… And that's the gist of it," said the Scientist I had learned who's name was Dr.Rosenberg. " Now some of us aren't too happy with the Combine's overtaking of the world, so we are the rebellion, our numbers are small right now, but someday, they'll grow larger, I know it."

I could see a glint of hope in the scientist's eyes, and I believed him. Further more, I think that's why I was sent here.

"Hey Rosenberg, why don't you show the good Corporal that suit you've been working on so much?" one of men in the lab said.

"Well certainly!" exclaimed Rosenberg, with a hint of excitement in his voice. "Follow me Corporal."

I followed him down a few stairs into a basement area of sorts and then I saw it. In a cylinder bathed in blue light, was a suit similar to those of the Humanoid Combine I seen earlier, or Civil Protection, except the helmet was of a different shape, more rounded, two blue eye shaped circles glowed above the gasmask part of the helmet. The torso and leg parts looked very thick, and good enough to absorb bullets, and there were areas on the suit to hold weapons and all. Finally, it was a brilliant white with some shades of gray around it, except for the boots which shone black. (A/N: Just thought I'd break in here and tell you to imagine a Solider Combine, except replace the black with white and such, P) I then noticed a symbol on the shoulders of the suit, which looked like a diagonal T colored yellow.

"What's that symbol?" I asked.

"Oh, that?" Rosenberg said. "That's the symbol of the Resistance, now I bet you won-".

Suddenly he was interrupted by a loud explosion, and I heard screams coming from upstairs.

"Civil Protection!" a voice yelled above gunfire.

Suddenly there were more screams of agony, and Rosenberg looked at me frightened.

"Get the suit on!" He exclaimed at me. "You should have time before they get down here!"

I did as he told me to, and the suit came on easier then I expected. As I put the helmet on, I saw the HUD flash to life, telling me my bio-scans and how good of a condition my body was in, and the suit's shield powers to. Both at 100, I think I might stand fair chance. I saw Rosenberg had already taken cover behind the cylinder where the suit once was. I quickly searched for something I could use as a weapon and I found a hefty wrench in the corner. I quickly hid to the side of the door frame, with my wrench at ready…

A Civil Protection officer came through the door way and I smashed his skull in and quickly scooped his pistol up. I shot the rest of them and gathered up their ammo.

"Erghhhhh." I heard a muffled voice coming from the floor and realized it was the Civil Protection Officer who I had though I had killed.

"Who… Who are you?" He moaned with pain.

I thought about telling him, and then I decided. If something was able to watch things through his eyes like a camera, I wanted whatever it was to know what the hell it had coming.

"I am Corporal Adrian Shepard of the Resistance." I said with certain calmness.

I pulled out my pistol and shot a single bullet into his head and ended his life.

"Is it safe?" Dr. Rosenberg said as he poked his head out from behind the cylinder.

"Yes." I said, and I just stared at him.

"… We've suffered a great loss," Rosenberg said grimly. "But now they'll be after you Shepard, and there's no safe way out of the city… Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Well," Rosenberg said. "You can access the sewers from this room, and they can lead you right out of the city, but the sewers are infested with Zombies, but that suit might just be able to protect you enough!"

"I'm willing to take that risk." I said calmly, as I felt the solider in me coming back.

"Good!" Rosenberg exclaimed. "If you manage to make it through, you might be able to reach one of my colleagues', who has been working on an attachment for the suit you're wearing right now."

Rosenberg walked over to a part in the wall that seemed to have a little hatch and a keypad next to it. He punched in a code and waved a hand for me to come over. I looked inside and saw a gun and lots of ammo.

"That is an AR2," he said as I lifted it out. "It has a primary and secondary trigger, and that secondary trigger might come in some use to you down there."

I examined the gun as he explained how it worked. It had a good wait, and it seemed that it had automatic reloading system, and that you would stuff the ball things into a shaft in the bottom. So I quickly set it all up.

"… Well anyway, be extremely careful with the secondary fire, it instantly kills living things, depending on size," Rosenberg said. "Anyway, come lift this sewer grate off"

I did so, and jumped down into the sewers' murky water below, and the pipes were as big as a tank so I had enough room to maneuver.

"Now be careful!" Rosenberg warned. "I hear Hunters patrol the sewers to make sure there are no Resistance members, but to also keep the zombies at bay!"

"Wait!" I yelled. "What's a Hunter!?"

But he had already placed the grate back and had walked away. I looked down the sewer pipe and turned my flashlight on. I was thinking one thing as I trudged along.

I was glad to have this gasmask.

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Lol I tried to make a funny with the last line there. Anyway, REVIEWWW! BWHAHAHAH! Also expect Gonomes, which I know what you were wondering, I mean zombies would have a long time to develop in sewers don't you think? 


	3. CHAPTER 3: Deep Shit

Hello thar people! Anyway here's Chapter 3 of my story, with Deep Shit supposed to be like sort of a pun, since he's in lots of danger, and the literal fact that he's in Deep Shit P. Also I'm going to answer a question asked in one of the many reviews (2, amazing rite?)

The Shadow Syndicate: " Are you going to include some of the older enemies such as Bullsquids or Houndeyes?"

I'm planning too, but I don't know when too right now, but you can probably suspect them in later chapters, also I plan to include one of the creatures cut out from HL1 but was in its beta: the Panthereye, but that won't be for awhile. But look forward to the next chapter, as one of most frightening and annoying creatures from Black Mesa will be the main focus of the next chapter. I'll give you a hint: The Challenger Deep ;)

Also in Chapter 5, expect the appearance of some others too. Anyway, onto the story

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CHAPTER 3: Deep Shit 

I started thinking white had been a bad color choice for this suit. It was definitely going to get stained. And smell very bad too.

In all seriousness I'd been wandering these sewers for 10 minutes stumbling along. I had a map of the sewers on my HUD telling me which way to go, but it was hard navigating in the dark. At least I hadn't encountered any enemi-

I saw something run past my flashlight in the T junction up ahead. I guess I spoke to soon. I then realized I had to go that same way. Damnit.

I wondered if there was night vision on this thing so I started flicking things around and eventually found it, and turned my flashlight off. I didn't get a good look at the thing but I'm guessing it was a Hunter. After some walking, I came into a larger area and saw a battle going on, and finally got a good look of the Hunters.

They had strangely shaped body, with two little eyes in the center, in which it seemed that they would shoot the same ammunition as an AR2, and hopefully not its' secondary fire. I could only recognize their features not their color, as everything was tinted green for me.

In the drop below I saw that Zombies were slowly approaching the Hunters and just carelessly being mowed down. The fight just seemed so unfair, and I was quite glad I was up here instead of down there with those things. Then the unsuspected happened, the course of the fight turned.

I saw large, extremely mutated Zombies emerge from the shadows, like the few I had seen in Black Mesa. Then I saw it, the master of all Zombies. It was the largest I had ever seen, and it looked horrifying, and very strong, as apparent by the big muscles along its arms. It was then I saw the Hunters backing away in what looked like fear while firing at it. Suddenly it rushed them with great speed. The Zombie picked on up with ease and crushed its head in and dropped it, then tore the legs off another, and soon enough all the Hunters were dead.

"Fuck." I cursed, how the hell was I going to kill that thing?

I then heard a loud noise behind me that sounded like a deranged cat, and I slowly turned around to it. I saw a Zombie behind me, but this one was thinner, and its flesh was more decayed then its heavier counter-parts. It had its hands up and was positioned in an odd fashion, then it put its hands onto to the ground and it seemed like it was going to push itself off the floor… That's when I realized what it was going to do.

I quickly ducked just as it soared over me and smashed into a wall, and slid down into the water below… Which was right where the gang of huge, mutated Zombies stood, along with their giant leader. I then realized they were looking up at me.

"Shit."

They started climbing the wall, making grip holds with their amazing strength, and climbing up with amazing agility. I then remembered what Rosenberg said right before I had jumped down into this hell hole.

_"… Well anyway, be extremely careful with the secondary fire, it instantly kills living things, depending on size," Rosenberg said._

I quickly stuffed one of the balls into the bottom shaft of the AR2, and got prepared to shoot it. Just then, the zombies had lifted themselves up and were slowly strutting toward, as to tease me before my impending doom. Well they had another thing coming. I pressed down the secondary trigger of the AR2.

A sphere of energy came shooting out, glowing a light upon everything. As I ducked down to make sure I avoided it, it bounced around and hit the smaller, mutated zombies, and I watched with amazement as there bodies were slightly floating and burning to a crisp before it was completely destroyed. It was then I saw it going straight toward the lead one, I was ready to cheer in glee as it was about to get destroyed… And then it simply just exploded on the zombie, damaging it slightly. Then the last part of what Rosenberg said echoed in my mind.

"_Depending on size."_

I quickly stood up and started shooting the AR2 at it as it rushed toward me speedily. I was then hit with great force and right into the pipe behind me. I looked at my HUD; my health was at 77 and my suit's power at 15. Thank god for the electrically charged shields. I then started sliding down, and I realized this pipe was sloped downward, and was like a slide, I looked at my HUD map and realized there was paths branching off it, and I had to make sure I slid myself the right way, or else it might be a long time before I get out here.

I then slipped, belly down, and facing the entrance of this crazy slide, and saw the Zombie was coming down it as well, and it was pushing off the sides to go faster and catch me. Well then, time to get the hell out of here.

I managed to turn around to face the opposite way, and started pushing off the floor, gaining speed as the Zombie was right on my tail. Eventually, I was going extremely fast, and hoped that I would still be able to make the turn, and saw that it was coming right up. I started leaning left, and managed to make the turn, a managed a quick glance behind me to see the Zombie blaze past the pipe I had just gone through.

I then slid down onto a normal, non-curved floor and slowly got up. I would reach the exit soon and finally be out of this God forsaken sewer.

After an hour of fighting multiple zombies, including the poison variety that I had learned was a pain in the ass, and Hunters, were the color hunter green, and that their eyes glowed a light blue like the ones in my helmet eye ports, which I had learned while quickly using my flashlight,.

Right now, I had my night vision off, as I could see the light coming from exit ahead. I was extremely glad to finally to get out of this sewer, but just before I could escape, my worst nightmare happened.

I saw a silhouette of a Hunter land right in front of the exit, right in front of me, but this one was different from your average Hunter. Instead of two blue eyes, it had one large red one, with two little red ones, one on top of the big red eye, and the other on the bottom of it. As it came closer, I could make out more of its' features, and the most was that it was the same as a normal Hunter, except instead of hunter green, it was a tan-white color. Of course it was sort of pointless to think of this right now as it walked toward me menacingly.

I pulled the AR2 trigger and all I heard was clicks, which meant I was out of ammo, and I knew I didn't have anymore of those energy balls left, and my pistol wasn't going to do shit against this thing. This meant I was screwed. Of course, I wasn't going to go out without a fight, so I put away my AR2 and took out my wrench, and as it charged toward me to headbutt me, I swung my wrench and we struck each other at the same moment. As the force of the headbutt sent me flying back, I realized I had managed to damage its large center eye, as I could tell by the apparent cracks in it.

My crash was softened by something fleshy… I turned and realized it was the Zombie, the same extremely large and amazingly strong one from earlier. I was now in between the probably two most dangerous things in this sewer. Just great.

I then saw the Hunter was shaking and was looking at floor. It was making the same noise the AR2 made when it was about to shoot one of those energy balls… I knew what was coming.

I ducked down as the Hunter shot one of the balls out of its center eye, and it impacted on the Zombie. It let out a mighty roar and charged toward the Hunter. I then thought that while they were busy fighting, I had a chance to escape! I quickly made my way around the fighting Zombie and Hunter and ran out of the sewer and into the light and just as I made it out some rocks collapsed over the exit. I was finally free from that hellish sewer and nothing could follow me out thanks to those rocks collapsing over it. I felt like doing a victory dance, but I realize how stupid it would be.

I instead looked at where I was. I was on a small shore area overlooking a large lake, and I wondered what was going to come next, but I had a feeling it was going to be even worse then the sewers…

Well at least I could wash the shit off the suit.

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LIKE THE SHITTNESS OF MY ONE LINER JOKES AT THE END OF CHAPTERS M I RITE GUYS? LOL. I kid. 

Anyway, I feel the probably most poorly done part might of been the sewer slide part, I had the perfect image of it in my head, but thinking of words to describe it was hard. Anyway, look forward to the next exciting chapter, which I've yet to think of a name yet, but it will also show when Shepard is in the timeline of HL2.

Anyway, I'm off to play Sven Co-op, so start those reviews people.

EDIT: I forgot to talk about my new Hunter variant . Anyway as you can see its based of the Elite Combine Soldiers and such. Suspect Shepard to meet one again. P


	4. CHAPTER 4: Ichthyophobia

Hey guys. Anyway, before I start talking about this chapter, I thought I'd talk about my new Hunter variant.

I like to call them Ultra Hunters, and unlike normal Hunters, they're stronger, faster, smarter, their armor can resist the energy balls, their white, like the Elite Combine Soldiers, and they can fire the AR2 Secondary Fire. Also, they have red eyes, and have two little ones like and normal Hunter that are sort of into the surface of the Hunter, but their third big red one sticks out, like that of a Elite Soldier's helmet.

Anyway, about this chapter, Shepard fights everyones favourite Half-Life 1 enemy; the Ichthyosaur. Also guess what Ichthyophobia means. Fear of fish. I'm serious, when I was having trouble naming this chapter I looked up Fear of Fish on Google, that came up. I can see how Valve might of came up with the name now.

Anyway, onto the next chapter!

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CHAPTER 4: Ichthyophobia

I was glad to finally be out of those sewers. My next order of business; find some ammo. I noticed what looked like supply crates nearby so I took out my wrench and started prying them open.

Then I heard a splash. I quickly turned to face the lake, and saw the small ripples on the lake, and held my pistol out at ready. Then a giant, carnivorous fish jumped out of the lake.

Xenotherus ichthycanthus or Ichthyosaur according to a poster I had seen in Black Mesa was what it was called, but I liked to call them mean bastard fish. As I turned back to collect the contents of the supply crates, I noticed it was surfaced above the water like an alligator, looking at me with those yellow eyes, its' red and green scales gleaming in the sun, and from that glare I could tell it wanted me for lunch. I remembered the trouble they had caused me in Black Mesa and shivered a little in fear.

The contents of the crates were some power cells that recharged my suit, medkits, and some AR2 ammo, but no energy balls, so there was no quick way for me to defeat this fish, and from what I knew, the gun wouldn't work underwater because it would get waterlogged.. I looked around for a dry way around the lake, but to no avail, all the cliff sides were too high to climb, and I remembered that new kind of Hunter had dropped down from there, who knew other Combine forces might be up there. The only way to go was across that lake.

I looked at the Ichthyosaur as it dived back into the water. I was going to make sure I got past it, hopefully with all my limbs. I dived into the water to see a new thing pop up on my HUD, dealing with levels of Oxygen in the suit. That meant this thing have Oxygen tanks, which would come in use for this.

The water was foggy as hell, so that damn fish would be able to ambush me from all directions, I stumbled upon the switches visions again, and this time fortunately found thermal vision, I quickly turned it on to see that the Ichthyosaur was coming straight at me, so I quickly swam down and avoided its gaping maw. Then I got an idea.

As I saw it coming toward me again, I swam up- and I landed right on its' back. I grabbed a tight hold with one hand, and held my wrench with the other and started whacking it repeatedly. It started maneuvering in every such direction, trying to get me off. It was hurt a lot now, as I could see the yellow blood flowing off into the water. Then it did something crazy.

It jumped out of the water, and did a flip, which unfortunately caused me to fall off, then as I tried to recover and get upright in the water, the thing grabbed with those little arms it has. It just stared at me, and I realized, my oxygen tank was out, and soon enough, I would drown, if this thing wasn't going to eat me first. Then it started to open its' mouth wide, and around me, and as I saw my impending doom draw near, a giant bolt of green electricity hit it, and it let go of me as it floated up, and then I could feel my lungs straining for oxygen as I tried to swim up, but all my strength was gone, and before everything went black, I could see a strange alien figure swimming toward me.

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Sorry about the shortness of the chapter.

BTW, that splash was caused by everyones favorite silent protagonist; Gordon Freeman! U. Mostly to tie up where Shepard is in the timeline of HL2 and such. Anyway, start your reviews

WHO SAVED SHEPARD!? FIND OUT IN THE NEXT EXCITING CHAPTER; OLD FIENDS.


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